CAMP’S DAY. It’s a day three years in the making but at 1:30 p.m. House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp will do what many deemed a far-fetched possibility: He’ll introduce a comprehensive tax reform plan. Don’t get us wrong, the draft faces a tough slog to get a House vote and an even tougher lift if Camp was to attempt to craft a deal with the Senate, but this document will serve to cement Camp’s legacy if Congress can piece together a reform package next year or the year after.

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There have been a number of rumors flying around about what is actually included in the draft but here is what we know based on interviews with staffers and lobbyists who have been briefed or seen some aspect of the proposal.

INDIVIDUAL: Camp’s plan gets the top individual rate down to 25 percent but with a 10 percent surtax on joint income above $450,000. He also takes on some middle class sacred cows like the home mortgage interest deduction — with a $500,000 cap — and the deduction for state and local taxes, according to documents circulating among lobbyists. There will also likely be suggestion to convert of some 401(k) accounts to Roth-like ones. He also taxes capital gains at ordinary income rates — after a 40 percent exclusion.

INTERNATIONAL: Camp is expected to go with his so-called Option C proposal in taxing foreign income — moving to a territorial system that the business community has been pushing for. But not all companies will back it — it would subject all intangible income to a 15 percent tax once fully phased in, according to documents circulating among lobbyists. It would also impose so-called “thin cap” rules that attempt to prevent excessive interest deductions.

CORPORATE: The big news here is the rate. Few expected Camp is get close to a 25 percent rate but according to lobbyists and staffers who have seen aspects of the draft, the chairman has gotten there — though through a five-year phase-in. Camp is also expected to propose a new levy on big financial institutions and some sectors are seeing green — including energy companies. Deductions for intangible drilling costs — a benefit for oil and gas companies — will not be touched in the forthcoming tax proposal expected tomorrow by Camp, Rep. Charles Boustany told Morning Tax. The bill will also require amortization rather than expensing of certain research and development and advertising expenses.

Your Morning Tax-er joined Zachary Warmbrodt, Brian Faler and Kelsey Snell to dive into the details — many of which have been adopted from the Democrats’ playbook. Read more: http://politi.co/1cluUqF

IN HIS OWN WORDS … Although Camp is widely believed to add a new bank tax — a 3.5 basis point boost in taxes on banks with assets above $500 billion, Camp in a Wall Street Journal editorial boasts of closing the ‘carried interest’ loophole — another favorite Democratic idea. Some investment fund managers — including those that run private equity funds — pay the lower capital gains tax rate on much of the profits they earn. But it might be a distinction without much of a difference, because Camp’s plan is expected to tax ordinary wage income and capital gains rates at the same 25 percent — after 40 percent of income is excluded, according to documents circulating on K Street. Still, expect a huge pushback from lobbyists for investment managers — who have sway among moderate Democrats as well as Republicans.

“We can clean up provisions like ‘carried interest’ that allow certain private-equity firms to get the investment-income tax rate on what anyone else would call normal wage income. We'll also put an end to special depreciation benefits related to corporate jets and close, once and for all, the infamous ‘John Edwards’ loophole that allows a select few to avoid employment taxes on their income. The revenue gained from that provision, and many others like shifting to Roth-style retirement accounts for those contributing more than $8,750 (only 5 percent of the workforce) can be used to lower tax rates across the board,” Camp wrote. http://on.wsj.com/1cliI97

WHAT PROS ARE READING: Kelsey Snell and Adam Snider have the scoop, “House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp will propose using money raised through tax reform to help fill shortfalls in the Highway Trust Fund while cutting corporate tax rates to 25 percent from 35 percent, according to senior aides who have seen details of the plan. The proposal would designate between $120 billion and $125 billion raised through base broadening and changes to the corporate tax code to supplement Highway Trust Fund revenue raised from the existing gasoline tax.” http://politico.pro/1mGmjIV

HOW THE DAY WILL PLAY OUT: Camp will start the frenzy early in the day with a presentation to the House Republican Conference at 9 a.m. – that meeting will be frosty at best, as many in the caucus are skeptical about tax reform’s future and viability in an election year. At 1:30 p.m. Camp will hold a media briefing in the Radio and TV Gallery to officially unveil the draft. We’re told that the draft and accompanying material will be hundreds of pages long (happy digging!). There will also be a deep dive for reporters at 4 p.m. with the tax policy staff to explain the details of the bill.

HOUSE: Convenes at 10 a.m. with the first series of votes between 2 and 3 p.m.

SENATE: Convenes at 9:30 a.m.

SCHEDULED: The House Judiciary Committee has officially scheduled its online sales tax-focused hearing for next Tuesday at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn House.

GUESS WHO'S BACK, BACK AGAIN. The House Oversight Committee will recall embattled former IRS employee Lois Lerner on March 5. Chairman Darrell Issa wrote to Lerner’s attorney on Tuesday requesting her presence nearly 9 months after she declined to testify before his committee citing her Fifth Amendment rights. Lerner has remained a top political piñata since she first admitted last May that the agency targeted conservative groups. She resigned — after being placed in the limbo of government employee contract rules when she was placed on administrative leave — last fall. Her attorney William Taylor is a founding partner of Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, where he has represented, among others, former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Kenneth Langone, who successfully fought prosecution in a high-profile executive compensation case.

“Ms. Lerner’s testimony remains critical to the Committee’ investigation. Documents and testimony obtained by the Committee show that she played a significant role in scrutinizing applications for tax exempt status from conservative organizations,” Issa wrote. “Ms. Lerner’s testimony will allow the Committee to better understand how and why the IRS targeted certain organizations.” http://1.usa.gov/1hcW8ol

ALSO ON DECK: IRS HEARINGS. A House Appropriations subcommittee will hear from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George and Nina Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, today 10 a.m. Expect the hearing to focus on agency allocations as the IRS is in an all-out push to convince congressional appropriators they need more funds — a suggestion that is often met with a scoff from the GOP. Ander Crenshaw, the chairman of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, is also keenly interested in the 501(c)4 nonprofit rules so the proposed rule changes from the Treasury and IRS will be a hot topic — especially as the House is expected to consider a bill halting those regulations today or tomorrow.

Also on deck, Jim Jordan’s Oversight subcommittee will dig into the Obama administration’s investigation into the tea party targeting controversy. This hearing begins at 1:30 p.m. Jordan has been immensely critical of the FBI probe into the targeting and has repeatedly asked the agency to brief his committee on the status of the investigation — though the FBI has declined to make the official running the examination available. That won’t change on Wednesday as none of the witnesses are from the Obama administration. Lawmakers will hear from George Terwilliger, of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP; Hans von Spakovsky, with the Heritage Foundation; Richard Painter, with the University of Minnesota Law School; and Eileen J. O’Connor, with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

** Since 2001, credit unions have increased the federal debt by NOT PAYING AN ESTIMATED $22.3 BILLION in federal income taxes. Congress: Why should taxpayers pay more in taxes so that credit unions can pay none? @ItsTime2Pay **

EARLY LOOK: REPORT FINDS AVERAGE FORTUNE 500 CORPORATION PAY 19.4 PERCENT. It’s hardly a new tale — and one of the driving reasons behind a push for tax reform — but a new study form the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has found that nation’s richest corporations are paying far below the tax code’s 35 percent statutory rate — nearly 16 percentage points less, in fact. With the help of loopholes and breaks, many of the corporations, which were studied over a five-year period, paid an average effective rate of 19.4 percent, the left-leaning groups found.

“Most of the biggest companies aren’t paying anywhere near 35 percent of their profits in taxes and far too many aren’t paying U.S. taxes at all,” said Robert McIntyre, director of CTJ and the lead author of this report, in a release announcing the study. “Most multinationals are paying lower tax rates here in the United States than they pay on their foreign operations.”

Over this five-year span, 67 Fortune 500 companies paid rates between zero and 10 percent — the report names General Electric, Priceline.com, Verizon Communications and Boeing in this group — and 26 corporations paid less than even zero percent — averaging a negative 5.1 percent rate with the lowest average tax bills belonging to the utilities, industrial machinery, telecommunications, oil, gas and pipelines, transportation, financial and aerospace and defense industries.

Here is the breakdown, according to CTJ: Pepco Holdings, which had $1,743 million in profits, paid a negative 33 percent tax rate; PG&E Corp., which had $7,035 million in profits, paid a negative 16.7 percent rate; NiSource, which boasted $2,473 million in profits, paid a negative 13.6 percent tax rate; Wisconsin Energy, which $3,228 million in profits, paid a negative 13.5 percent tax rate; and General Electric, with $27,518 million in profits, paid a negative 11.1 percent tax rate. http://bit.ly/1ehTehk

BILL WATCH: Texas Republicans Rep. Sam Johnson Sen. John Cornyn are eyeing $7.6 billion they hope to save by reforming how the Internal Revenue Service accepts Individual Taxpayer Identification Number — essentially tax-specific ID numbers for those ineligible to claim Social Security numbers. Legislation from Johnson and Cornyn would prevent fraudsters from using the ID numbers to claim credits they are not qualified for by requiring all first-time applicants to submit their ITIN applications in person and require “original documentation establishing their identity and foreign status”

PASSED: TAXPAYER PROTECTION BILLS ... The House swiftly passed last night the two IRS-focused bills from Ways and Means Republican Peter Roskam you read about in Morning Tax yesterday that would mandate the agency give taxpayers notice if their personal data is shared with an government entity and would ban the agency from asking about personal, religious or political beliefs. The Committee on Rules also approved Camp’s bill that would halt the Treasury from moving forward on its 501(c)4 rule changes. The rule — the committee approved a closed rule process with one hour of debate — will face vote today with Camp’s larger bill likely getting to the floor today or Thursday at the latest.

… AND OBAMA THREATENS A VETO. From the White House’s statement of policy notice, “The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 3865, which would prohibit the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from clarifying the standards that organizations must satisfy to qualify for tax-exempt status. … The lack of clarity of these standards has resulted in confusion and difficulty administering the Code, as well as delays in the processing of applications for tax-exempt status. ... The notice and comment process allows for all concerned parties to provide input and comments before any changes to the rules are effected. Treasury and the IRS will carefully consider any and all such comments before issuing any further guidance, and they will follow standard agency rulemaking procedures.”

THE BLAME GAME: LEVIN SAYS DOJ AND CREDIT SUISSE TO BLAME FOR TAX EVASION. Our Rachael Bade reports, “Remote-control elevators hiding clients visiting their Swiss bankers; banking statements hidden in Sports Illustrated magazines; and a clandestine bank office in a Swiss airport for quick and easy access to hidden pots of cash. Those are just a few of the tax evasion schemes Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, is alleged to have deployed to help rich Americans hide well over $10 billion in more than 22,000 accounts, according to the final report of a two-year Senate panel investigation.. [And the Department of Justice’s] more than half-decade quest to root out offshore tax evasion is not only falling short, but the ‘lack of determination to pursue the cases,’ identify U.S. tax cheaters and hold people accountable has also actually enshrined Swiss secrecy — not fixed the problem — a bipartisan probe by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found.” http://politi.co/1c6mMzI

Lawmakers will hear from Brady Dougan, Credit Suisse CEO; Hans-Ulrich Meister, the co-head of Swiss private banking and wealth management; Romeo Cerutti, the bank’s general counsel; and Robert Shafir, the co-head of Swiss private banking and wealth management and CEO of the Americas region. Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General James Cole and Kathryn Keneally, assistant attorney general of Justice’s tax division, at the committee’s 9:30 a.m. hearing. If this probe follows the patterns of similar top corporations accused by Levin of wrongdoing, today should make for a rancorous hearing that gives an incredible insight into the often-secret world of international banking.

SPEAKING OF THE SWISS … The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is hosting a 10:30 a.m. hearing on a series of tax treaties that need ratification. These items used to get easy universal-consent approval — then Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) came to Congress. Paul has been holding the tax treaties for years, including one with Switzerland that experts say would help the Justice Department get tax cheater information from that country. Paul’s office said he’s concerned about taxpayer privacy rights being trampled on in the bilateral agreements. But he’s not yet made up his mind about what he’ll do this year.

Those testifying include Robert Stack, Treasury Department deputy assistant secretary for international tax affairs; Thomas Barthold, the JCT chief of staff; William Reinsch, the president of the National Foreign Trade Council; and Paul Nolan, the VP for tax at McCormick & Co.

TREASURY STRIKES BACK AGAINST NONPROFIT RULE CHANGE CRITICS: The Treasury Department is hitting back against a stream of criticism congressional Republicans have lobbed its way since the Obama administration unveiled proposed rule changes for nonprofits last year. Republican leaders including House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have slammed the Treasury for what they describe as an attempt to “codify” the targeting of conservative groups faced by the IRS that came to light last year, and accuse the White House of attacking the free speech rights of nonprofit groups — specifically conservative groups.

Not so, says the Treasury in a letter sent to Camp. “There have been numerous misleading reports and public statements regarding the [proposed regulations]. …The [rule change] does not restrict any form of political speech,” said the letter authored by Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Alastair Fitzpayne. “The [regulation] does not favor any individual or political party or group. It applies to all organizations regardless of political affiliation.”

DID YOU KNOW? Toasters are deadlier than sharks.

** The credit union tax exemption is among the largest corporate tax expenditures. As credit unions leverage their tax exemption to grow aggressively, the cost to taxpayers has grown even larger. Congress tell the credit unions @ItsTime2Pay **

** A message from the American Forest Foundation: One in four rural Americans is a family forest owner. Collectively, these 21 million families and individuals care for more forests than the government or corporations, providing Americans with clean water, wildlife habitat, rural jobs and more.

Owning forestland is much like a small business or farm. Landowners have annual expenses and make investments to keep their land healthy. They also take on incredible risk, such as wildfire, insects, disease, hurricanes and more. Yet most will not see income from their trees but once a generation. Learn how the tax code can make or break a landowners’ ability to keep their land in trees and keep it productive. goo.gl/wYoqbU. **

About The Author

Lauren French covers Congress for POLITICO.She is also one of the authors of Huddle – a must-read morning tip sheet covering congressional news. Lauren is focused on House Democrats and conservative Republicans. She previously covered congressional tax policy and the IRS.Before joining POLITICO, she was an intern with Reuters covering national security and foreign policy and with McClatchy and The Houston Chronicle.She graduated from The George Washington University in 2012 with a major in journalism, but truly received her education as a two-term editor-in-chief for The GW Hatchet. She currently lives in D.C.French hails from both Illinois and Florida, where she enjoys paddle boarding and water sports. She is learning to cook and puts hot sauce on everything.